REINAUGURATES LANDMARK HOTEL

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Thursday invited national and foreign businesses to invest in tourism, given the enormous tourism potential that Mozambique possesses.He was speaking during the re-inauguration of Maputo’s best-known luxury hotel, the Polana, which has just completed a 22 month period of renovation. The hotel is now owned by the Aga Khan Foundation, and forms part of its Serena Hotel Group. The Serena Group is one of 96 companies that form the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED). ”We would like to invite the Serena Group and other national and foreign businesses to invest in the Zones of Tourist Interest, that is in the areas that have been earmarked for the development of tourism”, said Guebuza. “So far seven Zones of Tourist Interest have been declared in Inhambane, Nampula, Niassa and Cabo Delgado provinces. I would like to invite you to set up more hotels and other tourist establishments there, to multiply still further the world tourism references that the Polana Hotel gives us”. Guebuza praised the Aga Khan Foundation for respecting the original design and architecture of the hotel, generally regarded as an impressive landmark in the built environment of Maputo. The President declared that the Polana “deservedly and proudly claims an outstanding place among the best hotels of Africa, and of the elite class of the most famous hotels of the world”.The rehabilitation cost around 25 million euros (about 33.3 million US dollars). The hotel, originally built in 1922, now has 142 rooms, including deluxe and executive suites, and one presidential suite.Commenting on the economic importance of tourism in Mozambique, Guebuza spoke of communities who have organised themselves to manage community tourist undertakings, and of citizens who once had no regular income, but are now permanent or seasonal workers in tourist resorts – as cooks, gardeners, plumbers or in other positions needed for the smooth running of the resorts.The Aga Khan (or, to give him his full name, Shat Karim Al-Hussayni, the Aga Khan IV) described the Polana as “a new flagship for the Serena Hotel Group - and a new benchmark in the economic progress of Mozambique”.He said that he felt “enormous respect for this country, its leaders and its peoples, and the progress you made in recovering from an extremely difficult period of post-colonial turmoil”.Prince Amyn Aga Khan, the Aga Khan’s brother, and Chairman of AKFED’s Executive Committee, received the ISO 14001 certificate for the Polana Serena Hotel from Mozambique’s best-known writer, Mia Couto, who is also a prominent biologist and environmentalist. The certificate was awarded in recognition of the hotel’s grey water recycling system, which produces quality water for the gardens from the hotel’s waste water. The Polana is the first hotel in Mozambique to receive this certification.